The Next Ascent: An Evaluation of the Aga Khan Rural Support Program, Pakistan (World Bank Operations Evaluation Study.) (Multilingual Edition)

This is the fourth independent evaluation by the World Bank of the Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP) in northern Pakistan. This book assesses the development outcome of both the Aga Khan Rural Support Program since the program's initiation in 1982 as well as the 5-year period since the last evaluation in 1995. It concentrates on four program components—community organizations, infrastructure development, natural resource management, and microfinance. The methods used in this evaluation consist primarily of group and individual discussions in a sample of 24 villages chosen to represent a spread of village types and capacities. This is the fourth independent evaluation by the World Bank's Operations Evalauuation Department of the Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP) in northern Pakistan. Requested and funded by the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) and some of its co-donors, the evaluation was undertaken to assist the AKRSP in shifting its strategy to accommodate a changing environment and new challenges. It looked at both the period since the last, 1995 evaluation and the full period since program initiation in 1982. Some of the lessons from this experience have broad relevance for the rural development community. In rural areas, broad and sustained gains in economic and social welfare must be based on stabe increases in output. Increased output requires that appropriate technology be available that yields relatively quick returns. The program has pursued a high input/high output strategy that has expolited complementarities among the program components and efficiently used the region's scarce community facilitation and program management skills. Expansion (scaling up) is a slow process even with skilled facilitators, as there are few economies of scale. However, expansion by grafting new programs into locations with similar circumstances offers substantial leverage. Partnerships with actionable and measurable commitments should be formally agreed at the start of a program to ensure role clarity and create performance incentives. Exit strategies should be agreed with communities at the outset